Popular film director and producer C. Vetri Maaran has approached the Madras High Court challenging the denial of a censor certificate for Andrea Jeremiah-starrer Tamil movie Manushi, produced by him and directed by Gopi Nainar.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh is slated to hear his writ petition on Monday (June 2, 2025).
According to the petitioner, he had produced the movie, which deals with the custodial interrogation of a woman, under his production house, Grassroot Film Company.
He said the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), in September 2024, refused to issue a censor certificate for the movie on the ground that its contents portrayed the State in bad light and that the movie had confused leftist communism with mainstream communism.
Stating that he was neither given an opportunity to be heard before the denial of the censor certificate nor informed of the individual views of the censor committee members, the petitioner said he had submitted a representation to the CBFC on March 29, 2025, requesting the constitution of an expert committee comprising human rights activists to re-examine the movie.
The petitioner sought a direction to the CBFC to consider his representation and issue a speaking order after the re-examination of the movie by the expert committee. He also said he was willing to edit the movie if any of its scenes did not fall within the parameters of freedom of speech and expression.
The movie’s trailer released by the production house, and shared by actor Vijay Sethupathi on his social media accounts, in April 2024 had received critical acclaim after it showed moving scenes related to the custodial torture of a woman suspected to be a terrorist.
Besides Ms. Andrea, Nasser, Tamizh, Hakkim Shah, and Balaji Sakthivel too had acted in the movie. Acclaimed musician Ilaiyaraaja composed the music for the film helmed by Mr. Nainar, known for Nayanthara-starrer Aramm.
Published – June 02, 2025 03:40 pm IST